Tuesday, December 27, 2005

New Version Of Windows Media Player Soon?

The software giant next month will roll out a new version of the media player which executives say will change the experience of watching Internet-delivered video. Already, MTV Networks has announced it will roll out its own music download service on this new version of Microsofts player, competing with Apple Computer Inc.s iTunes and Real Networks Inc.s Rhapsody.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 5, founder and chairman Bill Gates will not just tout MTVs new service, known as Urge, but is likely to announce agreements with other content providers as well.

AMD Acknowledges Desktop CPU Shortages

Advanced Micro Devices said it expects to solve supply issues with some of its desktop processors by the first quarter.

The Sunnyvale, Calif., chip maker sent a letter to some of its partners stating that several of its desktop processor models were in high demand and would continue to be difficult to obtain, said two systems builders who asked to remain anonymous. One of those systems builders said the note specified the Athlon 64 3500, 3800, the dual-core X2 3800 as well as the lower end Sempron 2600 and 2800 as being in tight supply.

An AMD spokeswoman acknowledged shortages in the low-end desktop space but would not comment on specific model numbers. In a statement e-mailed to CRN, the spokeswoman said: "AMD is experiencing unprecedented demand for our desktop processors and this unprecedented demand has depleted our supply of packaging components."

ATI Confirms R580 Product Launch Shortly

ATI Technologies chief executive David Orton said in a recent financial conference call that his company would launch its new high-performance visual processing unit (VPU) within the following 90 days. The claim confirms unofficial information about the R580 chip, which is due to be released in late January, 2006.

“Over the next 90 days, you will see us recapture the performance leadership from ourselves, with our R580 launch in Q2, delivering the most compelling multi-GPU graphics platform with CrossFire, and ramping OEMs with this solution in the quarter as well,” said Mr. Orton.

According to some sources with knowledge of the matter, ATI Technologies received the first commercial batch of R580 wafers several weeks ago. Sources close to the company suggest that ATI will be able to supply enough code-named R580 VPUs to fulfill the demand towards them.

The R580, , is a revamped version of the currently shipping RADEON X1800-series VPU, which code-name is R520, has been tested by ATI since July, 2005. Unofficial information hints that the R580 has 48 pixel shader processors, 8 or more vertex processors and works at high clock-speeds. The chip, however, is expected to have 16 texture mapping units (TMU), less that could be expected. The product is to support Shader Model 3.0, ring-bus memory controller that supports GDDR4 memory type and other innovations.

The primary competitor for ATI’s forthcoming R580 is recently released NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 512 product from the company’s arch-rival. Nevertheless, ATI is expected to release various versions of its R580 targeting different segments of the high-end graphics cards market. According to market sources, ATI is unlikely to price its R580-based products at unprecedented levels, e.g., the part will not cost $649, a suggested retail price for the GeForce 7800 GTX 512.

Friday, December 23, 2005

ATI Reveals Radeon X1900 Details Internally

ATI secretly released its Silver Bullets material to AIBs this week and the picture of R580 is slowly coming together. R580, or Radeon X1900 as it is called internally, is expected to "launch" in January according to ATI documentation. Unfortunately, ATI's track record has not been spectacular with the last few product launches. ATI's Crossfire chipset "launched" twice, once in June and again in October.

ATI released their Silver Bullets for Radeon X1800 approximately two months before the launch of the card, but it took nearly six weeks after the launch for master card variants of the X1800 to show up on store shelves (and nearly as long for Crossfire motherboards as well).
The Silver Bullets presentation was a little light on details, but did confirm the R580 GPU has 48 pixel shader processors and higher clocks than R520 (a.k.a. Radeon X1800). Radeon X1900 uses a 90nm process also found on Radeon X1800.
The internal briefing also confirmed that there will be two separate versions of the card, RX1900CF "Master Card" and RX1900 "Crossfire Ready" card. Like the Radeon X1800 series, you will need at least one master card to enable Crossfire support. Avivo and Shader Model 3.0 will also appear on Radeon X1900.

New Western Digital Raptor Harddisk Coming Soon - WD1500AD

Although Western Digital a leading manufacturer of high performance HDD's has not yet officially announced the new product, a major german etailer - Alternate - has listed a new model of the very popular WD Raptor series - the WD1500AD!

WD Raptor is a unique class of hard drives that matches SCSI reliability and performance while providing simplified connectivity - all at a lower cost than Parallel SCSI drives. The SATA drives which are extremely well received at PC enthusiasts for high end gaming systems and for server and workstation environments will get an updated sibling with new features.

The new model WD1500AD is expected to be launched in late January 2006 and has the following features: 150GB storage capacity, SATA-II interface, Native Command Queing (NCQ) support, 16MB cache and 10000RPM speed. Alternate's retail price currently is 319 €. Link: http://www.alternate.de/html/shop/productDetails.html?showTechData=true&artno=A9BW18&#tecData

Nvidia ForceWare 82.12 Beta - Windows 2000/XP/x64

Nvidia has a second ForceWare release ready for christmas, this time it's in beta status only.
Release Highlights:
  • Adds support for GeForce 6800 GS AGP.
  • Adds support for Dell 3007WFP panel.
  • Mixed vendor support for NVIDIA SLI.
  • TV-Out/HD-out support for NVIDIA SLI.
  • Added support for VSync on Direct3D games when running NVIDIA SLI.
  • Performance enhancements for dual-core CPUs.
  • PureVideo high definition MPEG-2 de-interlacing support.
  • Usability enhancements when connecting to an HDTV.
  • Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0c and OpenGL® 2.0 support

For a full list of fixed and known issues please view the Release Notes.

Nvidia ForceWare 81.98 WHQL - Windows 2000/XP/x64

Nvidia has released a new set of ForceWare drivers for their GeForce series of GPUs. This set is WHQL certified and is available in english as well as multilanguage versions.
Release Highlights:
  • WHQL Certified
  • Application compatibility fixes. For a full list of fixed and known issues please view the Release Notes.
  • Mixed vendor support for NVIDIA SLI.
  • TV-Out/HD-out support for NVIDIA SLI.
  • Added support for VSync on Direct3D games when running NVIDIA SLI.
  • Performance enhancements for dual-core CPUs.
  • PureVideo high definition MPEG-2 de-interlacing support.
  • Usability enhancements when connecting to an HDTV.
  • Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0c and OpenGL® 2.0 support.

Mozilla Thunderbird Email Client 1.5 RC 2

Thunderbird is Mozilla's next generation e-mail client. Thunderbird makes emailing safer, faster and easier than ever before. It features intelligent spam filters, built-in RSS reader, quick search, and much more. Thunderbird 1.5 RC 2 is meant for the early adopter community, and Extension developers.

PlexTools Professional 2.32 Released

PlexTools gives extra support to Plextor hardware by enhancing the possibility to directly control specific functions.

PlexTools Professional has proven to be stable, precise and useful. It offers high quality audio and multimedia capabilities and advanced control of several powerful features of Plextor drives. The distinctive design allows ease of use for newcomers without compromising on the powerful features that experienced burners demand.
PlexTools has the following other editions available: PlexTools Professional XL.

Seagate Acquires Maxtor

Seagate and Maxtor, producers of hard disk drives from the U.S., announced Wednesday that they had signed an agreement under terms of which the former would acquire the latter. The announcement continues the consolidation trend of hard drive manufacturers and outlines just how complex the business is.

Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies, Maxtor shareholders will receive 0.37 shares of Seagate common stock for each Maxtor share they own. When the transaction is completed Seagate shareholders will own approximately 84% and Maxtor shareholders will own approximately 16% of the combined company. The value of the transaction is approximately $1.9 billion.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of calendar 2006, subject to obtaining shareholder approvals and customary regulatory approvals. There is a termination fee of $300 million payable to Maxtor under certain conditions. The transaction is intended to be tax-free to Maxtor shareholders. Prior to the closing, Seagate and Maxtor will operate as separate businesses.

Call Of Duty 2 Retail Patch 1.01

Activision has released a special HTT patch for Call of Duty 2, upgrading the World War II first-person shooter sequel by Infinity Ward to version 1.01 for users on Windows 2000/XP with "Intel Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology) enabled processors, multiple processors, or systems with a dual core processor. This upgrade will not affect pure server, and will not affect your ability to join or host multiplayer games with version 1.0 players."

ATI Radeon Catalyst 5.13 Drivers Released

ATI Customer Care now offers downloads of new version 5.13 Catalyst reference drivers for Radeon graphics accelerators running under Windows XP as a christmas gift. Some game-related fixes and CCC bug fixes are listed among the release notes, and word is: "Catalyst 5.13 software suite introduces H.264 hardware acceleration for the ATI Radeon® X1800, X1600, and X1300 product line. [...] ATI CrossFire Support for the ATI Radeon X1800. [...] " As noted, the "old" control panel edition of the drivers is no longer available, and the CCC edition is now required. CCC requires .NET framework 1.1 to be installed.
NOTE: Using the Catalyst® software suite 5.13, along with the Cyberlink H.264 decoder available from http://www.ati.com/technology/h264.html provides H.264 hardware acceleration. (not yet available)

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

New Quake 4 Mappack From id

Shaking up the holiday season with a trio of aftershocks, id Software, Raven Software and Activision, Inc. have released the Quakemas Map Pack - three new downloadable maps for QUAKE 4 on the PC. The maps - Railed, Tremors, and Campground Redux - offer all-new gameplay environments for more fast-paced, intense multiplayer combat. These latest maps are now available for free download at www.idsoftware.com.

Microsoft's New IE7 Browser To Have Increased Security

Microsoft's Internet Explorer will get significant security improvements with the upcoming IE 7.0 version. In recent months, millions of Internet users have switched to alternative browsers, like Firefox, because of security concerns with IE. Microsoft hopes to lure those people back with a newly designed browser that will have protected mode, phishing filters and even tabbed browsing.

IE7 is currently only available to developers in a Community Technology Preview (CTP). The browser's new protected mode will run IE7 with lower privileges than the main operating system and the browser can only access and write to browser specific files. A "broker" process will provide communication if the browser needs to save regular files. This feature is not currently available with this preview build of IE7, but will show up with Windows Vista reaches beta 2 status.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

ATI's Avivo Update - H.264 Acceleration & Special Downloadable Surprise

Anandtech has their Catalyst 5.13 preview online: Whenever ATI tells us they have some announcements to make two weeks before the end of the year, we usually get a bit worried. The fact of the matter is that it is very rare for a company to release and ship new products this close to the end of a year, so we tend to get suspicious when new announcements happen like this. There is one exception, however - and that is software, or in this case, drivers.
Just earlier this month, ATI released their Catalyst 5.12 drivers, which offered support for dual core processors, but without any really tangible gains in performance as we found out. ATI had also alluded to the potential of another Catalyst release before the end of the year, and as their predictions would have it, Catalyst 5.13 is due out for release this coming Thursday (12/22/2005).

Info-Tek Unveils Radeon X1000 Graphics Cards For Old AGP Bus

Info-Tek Corporation, the major supplier of the world's leading graphics card brand GECUBE, announced the world's first RADEON X1000 AGP Series Graphics products with the launch of the RADEON X1300 and RADEON X1600 graphics cards.

This simultaneous release of the GECUBE RADEON X1300 and GECUBE RADEON X1600 highlights an embedded memory of 256MB DDR2 memory that enhances game visuals and facilitates real-time responsiveness. Extremely realistic colors at higher resolutions (1920x1440 and 2048x1536) transport users to a gaming dimension bordering on surrealism. The AGP interface also allows gamers to easily upgrade without replacing large PC components such as motherboards.

The GECUBE RADEON X1000 AGP series all support Avivo technology. Video capture and playback is radically improved resulting in quality at 64 times higher the number of colors currently available in current PCs. An unprecedented 10-bit processor via Avivo's display engine makes this possible.

The GECUBE RADEON X1000 AGP series also support ultra-threading technology and Shader Model 3.0, which groups together brand new pixel and vertex shaders in order to create accurate lighting and shading. Thus, gaming settings and conditions drastically raise the bar in 3D gaming.

Microsoft Patch Day December 2005

On December 13, 2005, Microsoft releases its monthly security bulletins. This month's security updates affect Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer, a component of Windows.
Affected Software: Internet Explorer 5 and up on all operating systems
Affected Software: Windows 2000 Service Pack 4

Thursday, December 15, 2005

DivX Play / Create Bundle For Windows 2000/XP 6.1

DivX is a package that includes all the DivX codec, player, utilities, and documentation that you need to play DivX files. DivX codec is based on the MPEG-4 compression standard. This codec can reduce an MPEG-2 video (DVD format) to ten percent of its original size. DivX is a digital video compression technology based on the ISO MPEG-4 standard.

It includes DivX Player and DivX codec. To convert movies to DivX, download the Create Bundle.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Nero 7.0.1.4 Update Available

Ahead Software has released a massive 100MB update to Nero 7. The word is:

Dear valued customers,the new demo version and the new update contain a number of bug fixes*. Please note that by the end of the year, a new demo and update version will be available.
Your Nero Team

*An overview of all release notes and features is coming soon.

New Valve Source Engine Rendering Effects

[H]ardOCP had the opportunity to meet with Valve and discuss features that the company plans on implementing in their next generation gaming engines. The goal is to bring a more cinematic experience to the gamer given the massive processing power available with graphics cards now and in the near future:
This is very interesting what Valve is talking about here because this is something you may not have thought of. In gaming graphics, the goal is to achieve a very detailed environment that immerses you in the game, but, at the same time, you must have enough performance to actually enjoy it. Well, what if you could render effects that hide some of the nasty imperfections game exhibit to help increase your immersion in that game? What if you could render fewer polygons and use an effect that still makes the player model appear like he/she is detailed? With the effects Valve is talking about today, this is the goal.
You can also see videos of the effects in action over at Bit-Tech.

Nvidia To Acquire ULi

NVIDIA Corporation today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ULi Electronics Inc., one of the PC industry’s most highly-regarded core logic developers. Headquartered in Taipei, ULi also has offices in Hsinchu; Shanghai; Shenzhen; and San Jose, California. ULi is recognized for its innovative core logic technology as well as other multimedia and embedded products. The acquisition represents NVIDIA’s ongoing investment in its platform solution strategy, which leverages the acclaimed NVIDIA nForce media and communications processors and NVIDIA GeForce and NVIDIA Quadro graphics processing units.

DirectX 9.0c End-User Runtimes (December 2005) Full Download

This download provides the DirectX end-user redistributable that developers can include with their product. This update includes the DirectX for Managed Code Update from the DirectX SDK Update (December 2005).

The DirectX redist installation includes all the latest and previous released DirectX runtime. This includes the bi-monthly D3DX, XInput, and Managed DirectX components.

If you would like the websetup version of the runtime package, please click
here.

Monday, December 12, 2005

X1800XT Crossfire Cards Out

ATI finally released out the X1800XT crossfire boards, and performance appears to be pretty solid. As is usual with new product launches, if you know where to look, you can find them a bit early. This early peek has numbers to boot, check here, look at the screenshots on the right side.

Modern Games And Modern GPUs: The Grand Clash

The Holiday season is approaching and a lot of people will be playing the latest games during their spare time. X-bit labs has decided to help you choosing a graphics card in the range from below $99 and up to $649 for the latest and most demanding games that are available today.

This article is dedicated to the graphics cards that are relevant to the current situation and the latest games, which is why it does not test relatively outdated titles like Doom III or Far Cry and also does not touch upon multi-GPU setups, as it is obvious that due to lack of competition multi-GPU NVIDIA GeForce-based solutions are the fastest and the most expensive today.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification - December 2005

As part of the monthly security bulletin release cycle, Microsoft provides advance notification to our customers on the number of new security updates being released, the products affected, the aggregate maximum severity and information about detection tools relevant to the update. This is intended to help our customers plan for the deployment of these security updates more effectively. On 13 December 2005 Microsoft is planning to release:
Security Updates
• 2 Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Windows. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical. These updates will require a restart. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA).
Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool
• Microsoft will release an updated version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool on Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Windows Server Update Services and the Download Center.
Non-security High Priority updates on MU, WU, WSUS and SUS
• Microsoft will release two (2) NON-SECURITY High-Priority Updates on Windows Update (WU) and Software Update Services (SUS).
• Microsoft will release three (3) NON-SECURITY High-Priority Updates on Microsoft Update (MU) and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)

ATI Catalyst Drivers 5.12 Released

ATI Customer Care now offers downloads of new version 5.12 Catalyst reference drivers for Radeon graphics accelerators running under Windows XP. Several game-related fixes and performance improvements are listed among the release notes, and word is: "The Catalyst 5.12 software suite introduces dual core support for CPU bound cases. This feature provides improved graphics performance for DX 9 supported graphics adapters installed in systems running the Windows XP and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating systems." As noted, the "old" control panel edition of the drivers is no longer available, and the CCC edition is now required. CCC requires .Net framework to be installed.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Diskeeper 10 Released

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of Diskeeper for Windows, Diskeeper Corporation announced the release of Diskeeper 10.0. New Diskeeper 10.0 has defragmentation and storage performance technology that is light years ahead. The market leading automatic disk defragmenter continues to provide the most advanced technology to increase performance for Windows based networks.
Included in Diskeeper 10.0 is Intelligent File Access Acceleration Sequencing Technology (I-FAASTTM). This Disk Performance Calibration technology is a new class of disk technology that will allow users to squeeze more performance out of storage devices and is expected to deliver performance gains of 10-80% beyond defragmentation. New functionality includes:
  • Core enhancements to the new comprehensive defragmentation engine offer faster performance, less resources usage and more thorough file and free space defragmentation
  • Intelligent File Access Acceleration Sequencing Technology (I-FAAST™) learns the performance characteristics of each drive and sequences the most commonly-used files for the fastest possible access
  • Enhancements to I/O Smart™, which intelligently monitors drive access during defragmentation, allows transparent background defragmentation so you never experience a performance hit, even during system peak production times
  • Terabyte Volume Engine™ defrags large volumes, SANs, RAIDs and NAS, quickly and more thoroughly.
  • Enhanced user interface provides easy configuration and scheduling as well as reports on disk health, real time performance and fragmentation statistics.
  • Native 64 bit operating systems support.
  • New Diskeeper Professional Premier Edition is the ultimate edition for power users and high powered workstation computing.

Diskeeper 10.0 is now available for sale and can be purchased through your favorite reseller.

IE7 Public Beta Due Early Next Year

Those eager to get a taste of the next Internet Explorer release with tabs and RSS support only need to wait a couple more months. A public beta of IE7 for Windows XP is slated to arrive in the first quarter of 2006, IE team head Dean Hachamovitch confirmed on Tuesday, posting this information on his blog.

It's not clear if the public pre-release will be branded Beta 2; however, it does coincide with the expected Beta 2 launch of Windows Vista, which will also be open to the public. "We want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to try a pre-release version of IE7 and tell us how it works with their web sites, their applications, their add-ons, and how they use the web overall," said Hachamovitch.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Hynix Debuts 512Mbit GDDR4 DRAM

Hynix Semiconductor, Inc. yesterday announced the availability of the world’s first 512 Megabit GDDR4 DRAM, the DRAM industry’s fastest and highest density graphics memory. GDDR is an ultra-high speed graphics DRAM that processes moving pictures and graphic data in personal computers and game consoles.

The fourth-generation graphics memory GDDR4, which improves data processing speed by close to two times than that of GDDR3, is ideal for 64-bit computer operating systems that manage vast amounts of data at once. The Hynix’s 16Mx32 512Mb GDDR4 operates at 2.9Gbps and processes 11.6 Gigabytes of data in 1 second.

Hynix will shortly begin to sample its GDDR4 products to leading graphic chipset suppliers and plans to start mass production in early 2006. Hynix plans to introduce its GDDR4 DRAM with 14.4GB speed by second half of 2006.

ATI Catalyst 5.12 Performance Preview @ Anandtech

Anandtech has received the latest ATI beta driver for Radeon graphics cards. The interesting part of this is that ATI claims to have introduced dual core optimizations into this driver build just as Nvidia did in their recently introduced ForceWare series 80 drivers. Here is i a snippet:

There are really quite a few questions to be asked about this driver. After adding up everything we wanted to do, the sheer number of tests we had laid out was enormous. In an effort to be more efficient ourselves, we decided to break our analysis of the 5.12 driver up. This article is meant as a quick look at the benefits of ATI's dual core enhancements on a few select games running on X1K series hardware. We will compare this driver to the old one as well as dual core performance to single core performance.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

New Unreal Tournament 2004 Patch

After a ten month hiatus, Epic Games sends along a new Win32 retail patch for Unreal Tournament 2004, advancing their multiplayer first-person shooter sequel to version 3369. This upgrade implements more gameplay, networking, and engine improvements and fixes, as detailed in the accompanying release notes.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Counter-Strike: Source Update Available

Updates to Counter-Strike: Source have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:
New Map
  • Added de_nuke with High Dynamic Range (HDR) lighting
Counter-Strike: Source Enhancements and Bug Fixes
  • The Bomb (C4) can no longer be planted on breakables, movable physics props, or other players
  • Fixed problem where players were not always “grabbing onto” ladders that were approached from above
  • Crouching while traversing a ladder reduces the player’s speed (matches CS 1.6 behavior)
  • Improved door logic to prevent doors from opening into the player using them
  • View-smoothing is now done when going down stairs as well as up
  • Bomb-related sounds play for everyone correctly now (not just the bomb-planter)
  • First-person spectators are blinded and deafened just like the person they are observing
  • Fixed incorrect bullet penetration calculation through concrete+grate materials
  • Fixed changeteam exploit
  • Fixed DX7 early prop fade-out
  • Fixed rare player animation issue while holding grenades
  • Fixed apparent lockup/hang due to the disconnect dialog showing up over the quit menu and hiding it
  • Fixed crash when shooting explosive objects that would result in the shooter’s immediate death
  • Opening the buy menu and equipment menu on the same frame no longer leaves the buy menu in a bad state
  • DEagle no longer always plays deploy animation when starting to spectate its owner
  • Non-localized HintText displays correctly again
  • Added "mp_disable_autokick " so players with rcon access aren't idle-kicked
  • “soundscape_flush” no longer forgets about soundscape entities
  • Exposed VIP player index to plugins/mods

Counter-Strike: Source Bot Changes

  • Several navigation improvements (jumping, ladders, general movement)
  • Various CPU performance optimizations
  • Bots are more attentive to enemy noises now
  • Bots throw their grenades when surprised by an enemy correctly now
  • Bots can open doors when attacking with a knife now
  • Fixed bug preventing CT bots from hiding to guard a bomb defuser
  • Fixed a few issues where bots were trying to plant the bomb in bad places
  • Bots now break breakables they touch while stuck or crouched
  • Fixed bots not knowing if the cs_havana window is shut
  • Adding the “bot_join_delay” ConVar to delay bots joining after a map change

Nvidia 7800 GTX 512MB Retail Shortage

Most people eager to get their hands an a brand new GeForce 7800GTX 512MB have been disappointed in the last few weeks. Count myself in as I am waiting for a preordered Asus version for 2 weeks already. Despite Nvidia's claims about immediate availability of the 7800GTX 512MB, it was true for the first and second shipment only. The problem actually lies in Samsung's spanking' new GDDR3 memory chip, 1.1ns, cutting edge of DRAM technology. those chips aren't exactly in mass production, and the chips had the status of only "sampling" not a long time ago. Samsung massively produces 1.2ns and 1.26ns GDDR3 memory chips, as tens of thousands of 7800GTX and X1800XL/XT can witness, but 1.1ns is in rather short supply, consumed entirely by Nvidia's 7800GTX 512MB baby.

AMD Athlon64 FX-60 Toldeo On January 10th

According to The Inquirer, the FX-60 based on 90nm Toledo core will be launched by AMD on January 10th and folks at HKEPC have got a hold of a FX-60 clocked at 2.6GHz (13.0 x 200MHz), Dual Core, 2 x 1MB L2 cache, 1.35V VCore and JH-E6 stepping. It will be the last Socket 939 processor of the Athlon 64 FX family where the its successor will be the FX-62 which is Socket M2 based and supports Dual Channel DDR2 667. Athlon X2 and FX-60 share similarities since both are dual-core and are based on the Toledo core where FX-60 is essentially a "higher clocked" version of the current X2 4800+ at 2.4GHz. The next X2 in the line will be based on the "Windsor" core and Socket M2 based and will start appearing in Q2 2006. The Athlon 64 X2 5000+ will be clocked at 2.667GHz (8.0 x 333.3MHz) and contains 2 x 1MB L2.

Nvidia GeForce 7800 GS For OEM Only

According to sources from the OEMs, NVIDIA will still release GeForce 7800 GS but will only make the product available to the OEM market in the current plan. GeForce 7800 GS will be based on G70 architecture but will only sport 16 pixel pipelines and 6 vertex pipes. It will be clocked at 375MHz core and 1GHz memory with 256-bit memory interface. For its performance, the 7800 GS can replace 6800 Ultra and GT. Also there will be AGP version of the 7800 GS as well but it will require BR02 bridge to change it back to AGP interface.

New Logitech SetPoint Software 2.47 Released

Logitech has released an updated version of their SetPoint Software for their newer mice and keyboards. The new version is 2.47 and works with the MX518, Mediaplay Cordless, MX1000, the new V series and the new G series of mice as well as a few other and some keyboards. There is no word on what is new or what has been fixed since the last release. A version for Windows XP 64bit is also available.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Java Runtime Environment Version 5.0 Update 6 Released

Java technology is a groundbreaking computing platform released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. Originally called OAK, it was renamed as the Java programming language in 1995.

Java technology opens up a wealth of exciting possibilities for consumers. It enables just about any application - including games, tools, and information programs and services - to run on just about any computer or device. From desktop PCs to mobile handheld devices and cell phones, Java technology today is just about everywhere.

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Nvidia GeForce 6 & 7 Series GPUs Windows WDM Driver 4.13

Nvidia has released a new WDM driver v4.13 for GeForce 6 and 7 series only. This version is for Windows XP/2000/Me/98SE and supports graphics boards with video capture input (VIVO) only. NOTE: This WDM driver kit must be used with the latest ForceWare Graphics driver for GeForce GPUs. Please install that driver first before installing this WDM driver.

Raxco PerfectDisk 7.0 Build 46 Update Available

PerfectDisk Version 7.0 delivers speed, thoroughness, and ease-of-use for all Windows home, small business, and large enterprise users. Certified by Microsoft for Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003, PerfectDisk is designed for today's largest disk drives. If you are serious about disk defragmentation, optimization, and free space consolidation, you'll find PerfectDisk meets your high demands and requirements.
What's new in PerfectDisk build 7.00.046
  • We added support for the X64 processor. You cannot patch a 32 bit version of PerfectDisk to a 64 bit version due to limitations of Windows Installer. You will have to get a 64 bit installation of PerfectDisk in order to run on the X64 bit operating system. Please contact Raxco if you need assistance in getting a 64 bit version to install.
  • Corrected a bug in the boot time defragmentation. If you exceeded 268,435,456 clusters, the verify stage of the boot-time defrag pass would fail.
  • Corrected a bug on the enable/disable menu for Group Policy Schedules. The local User Interface (UI) should not be permitted to change the current status of a Group Policy schedule, however under certain conditions, the local UI could disable a Group Policy Schedule. This has been corrected.
  • PerfectDisk Support Info feature will now gather additional information to assist in troubleshooting any issues.

Mozilla Firefox Browser 1.5 Released

The award-winning Web browser is better than ever. Browse the Web with confidence - Firefox protects you from viruses, spyware and pop-ups. Enjoy improvements to performance, ease of use and privacy. It's easy to import your favorites and settings and get started.

Firefox 1.5 has an intuitive interface and blocks viruses, spyware, and popup ads. It delivers web pages faster than ever. And it’s easy to install and import your favorites. Packed with useful features like tabbed browsing, Live Bookmarks, and an integrated Search bar. Enjoy quick page loading as you navigate back and forward in a browsing session. Improvements to the engine that powers Firefox deliver more accurate display of complex web sites, support for new Web standards, and better overall performance.

It also features automatic updates, tabbed browsing, improved pop-up blocking and more.

ATI Avivo XCode Video Encoder Software - In Development

CHIP Online had the opportunity to test a beta version of ATI’s still secret „Avivo XCode“ encoding tool. It uses the power of the GPU to reduce video encoding time –into virtually any format – drastically. Their results show: The new ATI solution easily does it 5 times faster than even the fastest CPUs available today!

Traditional video encoding tools rely solely on the PC’s main processor for the extensive calculations necessary when en- and decoding video sequences. The secret ATI Avivo XCode tool, however, additionally employs the power of ATI’s X1000 series’ architecture. They assume that the XCode tool mainly utilizes the programmable pixel shader units for it’s number-crunching.

There’s a hook however: Avivo XCode only runs on PCs with ATIs Radeon X1000 series VGA cards; i.e. X1300, X1600, X1800 in their respective Pro or XT versions, as well as their All-in-Wonder version. The tests indicate that even the cheapest model, a Radeon X1300 available for around 90 Euros in Europe, can achieve dramatic speed increases at crunching down videos.

For comparative benchmark results, the test configuration had to transcode two different MPEG-2 clips into the WMV9 format, using Microsoft’s Windows Media Encoder (WME) and ATIs Avivo Xcode, respectively. For WME we chose the options „File download“, „DVD quality (CBR)“ and „High definition quality audio (CBR)“. Since the beta version of Avivo’s XCode doesn’t offer any detailed settings, they let the tool convert the test clips into the output quality levels „High“, „Medium“ and „Low“. You can find the rest of the test specifications below.

The results are (to say the least) impressive: The Avivo XCode beta transcoded the video clips about five times faster than Microsoft’s encoder (!), with the chosen quality level showing no significant impact: Comparing the picture quality, clarity and smoothness of the converted clips, even our codec specialists couldn’t identify any visual difference.

Remarkable: During the encoding process, XCode uses the main CPU to its maximum – the task manager continually shows 100 percent usage. In contrast, the Windows Media Encoder (who’s supposed to use only the CPU) shows fluctuations from 75 to 100 percent.

Video codec support

Avivo XCode beta supports 11 video codecs/profiles: MPEG 1/2, VCD, S-VCD, DVD, MPEG 4 (DivX Compatible), WMV9, Portable Media Center, H.264 (AVI), MPEG-4 (Sony PSP Compatible Video) and H.264 (MP4 Apple iPod Compatible Video). So Avivo XCode is suitable for PSP and iPod Video fans as well as owners of modern cellphones - they support the H.264/3GPcodec, too.

Limitations

The Avivo Xcode version in their possession offers no detailed settings for important parameters like bitrate, resolution or audio quality. It’s also not possible to join separate video files. Hopefully, ATI will add these features before the final release of the tool.

Conclusion

It’s more than impressive to experience a first glimpse of what the Avivo architecture in ATI’s X1000 series is capable of. At everything video-encoding, even (extremely expensive) high-end CPUs will soon suffer a staggering defeat by even the cheapest entry-level VGA cards.

If the soon-to-be-published final version of Avivo’s XCode contains the features we specified above, video-enthusiasts will without any doubt suddenly find ATI X1000 series extremely appealing…

New Windows XP Update Released - KB909441

Microsoft has released a new update for Windows XP Home and Professional editions. This update fixes a problem in control panel, "Sounds and Audio Devices" which does not correctly display the setting in the "Speaker Setup" list.

Symptoms: After an application calls the Microsoft DirectSound SetSpeakerConfig method and specifies either the DSSPEAKER_7POINT1_SURROUND value or the DSSPEAKER_7POINT1_WIDE value, Sounds and Audio Devices in Control Panel does not correctly display the setting in the Speaker Setup list.

If an application specifies the DSSPEAKER_7POINT1_SURROUND value, Sounds and Audio Devices should display the description 7.1 home theater speakers. Instead, Sounds and Audio Devices incorrectly displays the description 7.1 wide configuration speakers.

If an application specifies the DSSPEAKER_7POINT1_WIDE value, Sounds and Audio Devices should display the description 7.1 wide configuration speakers. Instead, Sounds and Audio Devices incorrectly displays the description 7.1 home theater speakers.

Cause: This problem occurs because the DSSPEAKER_7POINT1_SURROUND value and the DSSPEAKER_7POINT1_WIDE value are mapped incorrectly when Control Panel is initialized in Microsoft Windows XP.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Symantec To Ditch Sygate Firewall

Another free Windows firewall bites the dust. Symantec Corp. has announced rather abruptly that as of next week it will no longer support or offer its Sygate line of firewall products.

The move comes little more than three months after Symantec bought Sygate Technologies along with its Sygate Pro and Sygate Free personal firewall products. Symantec's purchase of Sygate was widely viewed as a bid to solidify and consolidate its market position in the enterprise security space, as Sygate's business-oriented network access and security compliance products were its bread and butter.

With the announcement earlier this month that Kerio Technologies would discontinue its free personal firewall software, the field is narrowing. Still, there are several trusty options. To name just a few (and I'd welcome any other suggestions via the comment section below): Zone Alarm free ; 8Signs ; Tiny Personal Firewall ; Jetico

Intel Adds Follow-up Series To 915 Chipset Family

The successor to the 915 chipset has been recognized by Intel as the 946 series. This addition to the Broadwater family will be built on a 90 nanometer processor and will be paired the ICH7 southbridge:

Intel is scheduled to launch the 946-chipset family in conjunction with the ICH7 southbridge in the second quarter of 2006, the same time when the 965 series bundled with the ICH8 will also hit the market, indicated the sources. The full-line of Broadwater chipsets will be built using 90nm process technology and are aimed at pushing forward migration to DDR2 memory and dual-core CPU architecture, the sources noted.

Unpatched IE Flaw Is Worse Than Expected

Last week was shortened by the Thanksgiving holiday, and it seemed the malware guys took it off as well. There was not much going on of recent origin, and the biggest blip on the security radar was the realization by the security community that an Internet Explorer problem first identified six months ago was a lot worse than it appeared.

The realization caused Secunia to issue a rare "Extremely Critical" advisory. Once thought just to be a DoS vulnerability, it turns out that it also allows execution of arbitrary code. Benjamin Tobias Franz who figured out the original problem told Microsoft of the problem in March. Microsoft has done nothing to modify IE to reflect this information in the last six months. It may be because the risk of exploit was considered at the time to be "low".

Friday, November 25, 2005

Potential Xbox 360 Crash Fix Found

A gamer fed up with his new Xbox 360 crashing every 20 minutes has fixed the problem by raising the power supply off the ground with some string.

Dan, from Duluth, or 'goldeneyemaster' as he is known, told the GameSpot forum
here that he thinks the main reason that the Xbox 360 freezes is because the powersupply overheats. The solution is to lift the power supply off the floor and allow the air to circulate better around it.
Another simple method involved getting a box with no cover and putting the power supply on the edges.

As a result, he was able to leave his machine on for a stonking seven hours without it freezing up. Other gamers to the site report that the idea works for them too. Many of them note with relief that since it is the powersupply that is clearly the problem, rather than the box itself, it should be fairly easy for Microsoft to replace.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Logitech G5 Laser Mouse Firmware Update v1.1

Logitech has released a firmware update to their recently launched G5 laser mouse, targeted at gamers. This update allows the G5 to track on more surfaces. If your mouse already has the current version 1.1 firmware, the program will say “Found a G5 with Firmware version 1.1” — there is no need to update your mouse. Note: The 64-bit version of Windows XP does not support this update.

Civilization IV Retail Patch v1.09

As promised, Firaxis has now issued the first retail patch for Civilization IV, advancing their history-spanning 3D turn-based strategy game to version 1.09. This upgrade adds new features, balance tweaks, gameplay enhancements, many bug fixes (ATI issue Failed to Init Renderer fixed), and other changes as detailed in the accompanying release notes.

New VIA Hyperion Pro Drivers 5.06A Released

The drivers are for any VIA chipset with any Microsoft Windows operating system from Win98 right through to WinXP x64. Having said that, here's some advise: VIA Hyperion Pro drivers are suitable for ANY VIA chipset - but they are particularly recommended for KT4## series, P4X4## series and newer, for example:
K7 chipsets: KT400, KT400A, KT600, KT880, KM400, KN400
K8 chipsets: K8T800, K8T800Pro, K8M800, K8N800, K8T890, K8T890Pro, K8T900
P4 chipsets: P4X400, P4X400A, PT800, PT880, PM800, PM880, PT880Pro, PT894, PT880 Ultra, PN800, PN880

Version 5.06A includes the following components:

INF V2.60A
AGP V4.50C
RAID V4.30H
IDE Filter V1.20D

Xbox 360 With Stability Issues

Only one day after the start of the Xbox 360 in the USA complaints of disappointed players, whose consoles fail frequently have arisen. In the meantime messages fill various forums and reports of crashes after approximately a half hour running time or when starting the on-line service Xbox Live were noted. According to reports of players, who contacted the technical support of Microsoft, the "problem is larger than expected" at Microsoft support employees. Quite frequently overheating of the system seems to be the cause for lock ups. The strong air flow of the rear fans may not be obstructed, so the information of the support crew.

Pperhaps some cases of crashes and lock ups can be explained, not however different crashes, as for instance only being able to drive
one round in "Project Gotham Racing 3". If the problem does not cease to exist after troubleshooting, players could return their Xbox 360 for repair, which would last however four to six weeks, so the Microsoft support.

It is unclear whether only individual loads of consoles are affected by the problems or if it is a fundamental error in the design of the console. Game testers meanwhile reported of stuttering frame rates in
Quake 4 or incorrect collision inquiries in Madden NFL 06.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Preview

Straight from the Xbox 360 launch party, PC.IGN has slapped up some impressions on Bethesda Softworks' upcoming RPG, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Here is a small snip:

Next, Pete guided the character through a forest area toward an area of stone ruins. Though the graphics in the area were gorgeous, there were a significant number of objects that would pop in and out of visibility. Pete was quick to say that this build is still being worked on, and that by the time TESIV releases later this year the framerate and popping issues will be resolved. Will this actually happen? We're assuming so. After all, it was basically the reason the game was delayed in the first place. As Pete said today, all the game's content is finished and now the development team is hard at work on fine tuning.

Nvidia nTune 3.00 Download

French site Station Drivers has Nvidia nTune software version 3.00.14.05 available for download. This is not an official Nvidia release as their website still has version 2.05 listed as latest available. The 3.0 release might officially be released at a later time.
The NVIDIA nTune is the easiest, fastest, and safest performance optimization and monitoring application available for your PC. Incorporating more features than any other system tuning or monitoring product, NVIDIA nTune is the only performance tuning application designed exclusively for your NVIDIA nForce-based PC. With NVIDIA nTune your system can automatically adjust to maximum performance settings for intense gaming or will detect that you’ve inserted a DVD and will set the system to quiet operation. This intelligent application offers the safest way to change bus speeds, memory timings, and even tweak voltages. Changes are made easily within a simple-to-use Windows interface - so you no longer need to make changes to the BIOS or reboot your system. nTune might NOT be compatible with your mainboard.

Battlefield 2 Retail Patch v1.12

Electronic Arts has released the eagerly-anticipated new patch for Battlefield 2, upgrading the 3D multiplayer action game by Digital Illusions (and its Special Forces expansion) to version 1.12. This patch insures multiplayer compatibility between original game and add-on, as well as fixing a handful of gameplay issues and bugs.

Microsoft Promises To Patch IE Zero-Day Bug

Microsoft late Monday responded to reports of a critical zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer with a security advisory that promised a fix but not a timeline.

Initially, the vulnerability was thought to only crash the browser, but new information, said researchers, point to a greater risk: that an attacker could run malicious code remotely on a compromised PC by luring users to a malicious Web site. The bug was
labeled "extremely critical" by one security vendor Monday.

IE 5.01, 5.5, and 6.0 are open to attack, said Microsoft, even when running on up-to-date editions of Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1, and Windows 2000 SP4. The advisory offered up several steps users could take to prevent an attack, including disabling Active scripting and requiring IE to prompt before running Active scripting.

VIA Begins Sampling Of New AMD Socket 939 Chipset - K8T900

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced that VIA's latest high performance chipset for the AMD platform, the VIA K8T900, is sampling to leading motherboard partners to create platforms tailored for the PC enthusiast market.

Integrating VIA's proprietary RapidFire™ technology that incorporates a number of PCI Express enhancements, the VIA K8T900 offers exceptional performance across the board, while also featuring industry leading low power consumption. With the Flex Express™ architecture the VIA K8T900 supports advanced connectivity options including dual x8 PCI Express connections for the latest multi-graphics card configurations or alternatively a standard single x16 PCI Express graphics connection. In combination with the VIA VT8251 South Bridge the K8T900 platform offers unparalled peripheral support with an additional six x1 PCI Express connections, as well as supporting up to four high speed SATA 3.0Gb/s hard drives, and VIA Vinyl High Definition audio.

Key Features

» Supports full range of AMD AMD Athlon 64 / Athlon 64 FX / Opteron / Sempron processors (939, 940 & 754-pin)
» Advanced VIA Flex Express Architecture
» PCI Express Dual x 8 Graphics / PCI Express x16 Graphics
» 4 PCI Express x1 high speed peripheral connections*
» VIA Hyper8 Technology with 1GHz/16-bit (per direction) HyperTransport processor-to-chipset link
» Asynchronous bus architecture
» Ultra V-Link 1066 MB/sec high bandwidth North/South Bridge interconnect
» Integrated VIA Vinyl HD Audio and support for Vinyl Gold Multichannel HD Audio Suite» Serial ATA support for up to 4 devices
» Integrated V-RAID with RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5 and JBOD (SATA) support
» Support for up to 4 SATA 3.0Gb/s devices
» Parallel ATA133/100/66 support for up to 4 devices
» Support for up to 8 USB 2.0/USB 1.1 ports, UHCI compliant
» Support for VIA Gigabit Ethernet companion controller & Integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet MAC
» Integrated MC'97 Modem
» Advanced power management capabilities including ACPI/OnNow
» 933-pin BGA North Bridge
» 645-pin BGA VT8251 South Bridge

ASUS AGEIA PhysX Expansion Card Due In February

Varun Dubey from the CoolTechZone reports that since ASUS is the primary manufacturer of PhysX cards, everyone is interested in the actual launch date. After conversing with ASUS regarding the card’s availability, the company pointed out that the cards have been ready internally for quite some time, but ASUS doesn’t feel the right time is here yet for mass production and a global launch due to limited game compatibility.

A source close to ASUS forwarded our attention to a few images of the actual PhysX expansion card online, but confirmed that the cards depicted in those images were not functional. Moreover, the source said, ASUS will debut the card in February 2006 when more games become available to take advantage of AGEIA’s innovation.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) Build 1.0.701 Available For Download

Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) is a security technology that helps protect Windows users from spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Known spyware on your PC can be detected and removed. This helps reduce negative effects caused by spyware including slow PC performance, annoying pop-up ads, unwanted changes to Internet settings, and unauthorized use of your private information. Continuous protection improves Internet browsing safety by guarding over fifty (50) ways spyware can enter your PC.
The latest beta refresh, build 1.0.701, extends the Windows AntiSpyware beta expiration date to July 31, 2006 and provides new signature updates to help protect against recently identified spyware.

Official Nvidia ForceWare 81.95 WHQL - Windows 2000/XP/x64

Nvidia has released a new set of ForceWare drivers for their GeForce series of GPUs. This set is WHQL certified and is available in english as well as multilanguage versions. The Release Notes reveal the following single GPU issues as resolved:

• There is a possible incompatibility between the ForceWare graphics driver and the current WDM driver.
• GeForce 7 Series: Modifying any Performance and Quality Setting using the system tray icon turns off Gamma and Transparency Antialiasing.
• GeForce 6800 Ultra: Textures are corrupted upon the first time entering a zone in Guild Wars.
Furthermore the following SLI-related issues are resolved:

• GeForce 6 and 7 series, SLI: Updated F.E.A.R. SLI profile to achieve better SLI performance and compatibility.
• GeForce 6600, SLI: Blue-screen crash occurs when starting a new game in Civilization 4 with antialiasing enabled in the NVIDIA control panel.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Update for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Update - KB910393

This update is intended for systems running Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. Install this update to prevent Windows Media Player 10 setup from overwriting digital rights management (DRM) files installed by Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (KB900325). For more information about this update, read Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 910393.

Windows Media Encoder 9 Series x64 Edition

Windows Media Encoder 9 Series x64 Edition is a powerful tool for content producers who want to take advantage of the many innovations in Windows Media 9 Series including high-quality multichannel sound and high-definition video quality on x64 platforms.

AGP Radeon X1800 Confirmed As Misprint

Initial reports that Diamond Multimedia would offer an AGP version of ATI's Radeon X1800 appear to be false. A misprint on Diamond's web site caused the confusion, but the company has confirmed that it has no plans to offer a Radeon X1800 with an AGP interface. Interestingly, ATI says that there are no technical limitations preventing graphics card manufacturers from melding the Radeon X1800 to AGP using ATI's Rialto bridge chip. The market for such a product may not be large enough to interest graphics card manufacturers, though.

Friday, November 18, 2005

Nvidia Tray Tools Initial Release - NVTray

NVTray, provides some extra quality tweaks that both the default NVIDIA tray icon and control panel are lacking. The author especially wanted to be able to select more Antialiasing modes, as well as OpenGL and Direct3D options right from the tray icon. Also, the utility is able to run automatically at startup thus making it a bit easier to change settings before playing a game or running a benchmark. This program requires .NET Framework 2.0 to support a broader range of systems.

NVTray includes NVTweak, which unlocks many extra options in the NVIDIA control panel/driver, including but not limited to - Overclocking, AGP & Hardware settings, Fan control, Temperature settings, Debugging, Twin View, Video Mixing Renderer, OpenGL 2.0 support, 3D viewer types (for 3D Stereo drivers), and more.

Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 3 Out

Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 3 is now available for download. This is the third release candidate of the next generation Firefox browser, to be released later this year, and it is being made available to the developer and testing community for compatibility testing and to solicit feedback.

Note: This may not be the final release of the Firefox Web browser. Hit Read More for the release notes...

Here's what's new in Firefox 1.5 RC 3:

  • Automated update to streamline product upgrades. Notification of an update is more prominent, and updates to Firefox may now be half a megabyte or smaller. Updating extensions has also improved.
  • Faster browser navigation with improvements to back and forward button performance.
  • Drag and drop reordering for browser tabs.
  • Improvements to popup blocking.
  • Clear Private Data feature provides an easy way to quickly remove personal data through a menu item or keyboard shortcut.
  • Answers.com is added to the search engine list.
  • Improvements to product usability including descriptive error pages, redesigned options menu, RSS discovery, and "Safe Mode" experience.
  • Better accessibility including support for DHTML accessibility and assistive technologies such as the Window-Eyes 5.5 beta screen reader for Microsoft Windows. Screen readers read aloud all available information in applications and documents or show the information on a Braille display, enabling blind and visually impaired users to use equivalent software functionality as their sighted peers.
  • Report a broken Web site wizard to report Web sites that are not working in Firefox.
  • Better support for Mac OS X (10.2 and greater) including profile migration from Safari and Mac Internet Explorer.
  • New support for Web Standards including SVG, CSS 2 and CSS 3, and JavaScript 1.6.
  • Many security enhancements.
  • List of notable bug fixes since Firefox 1.5 Beta 2
  • Thursday, November 17, 2005

    Quake 4 Retail Patch 1.04

    id Software has released new retail patches for Quake 4 to bring the Win32 edition of Raven's sci-fi first-person shooter sequel to version 1.0.4, and the Linux client/server to version 1.0.5. This release fixes a map copying problem, adds numerous Game Browser improvements, and applies a few other changes.

    ATI’s Graphics Cards Partners Consider Radeon X1800 XT Boost

    At least some partners of graphics chip maker ATI Technologies are reportedly considering to increase the speeds of ATI RADEON X1800 XT-series graphics cards in order to make the products more appealing to customers in the light of the NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB release.

    Some manufacturers of ATI RADEON-based graphics cards are reviewing possibilities to increase the RADEON X1800 XT-series clock-speeds to 650MHz – 675MHz for the visual processing unit (VPU) and up to 1550MHz or higher for the memory. While no makers among those questioned by X-bit labs confirmed that they had made the decision, at least one confirmed the fact of considerations.

    Sources close to ATI Technologies noted that the company is unlikely to forbid its partners to boost performance of ATI-based products, however, they said there are special product guidelines that contain maximum speeds at which ATI still provides warranties. If those frequencies are not left behind, manufacturers will still have the warranty on products supplied by the Markham, Ontario-based graphics chip designer.

    Xbox 360 Dissected

    The folks at AnandTech have gotten their hands on an Xbox 360 console and have taken it apart, snapping a raft of photos along the way. The hardware peep show includes nekkid pictures of the Xbox 360's CPU, GPU, motherboard, and other naughty parts. The dual-die GPU with its on-package interconnect looks especially fancy. Unfortunately, their servers are getting hammered right now like Ted Kennedy at a post-election cocktail party, so you may have trouble pulling up the images.

    Sony Recalls XCP "Rootkit" Copy Protected CDs

    Sony BMG Music Entertainment said Monday it will pull some of its most popular CDs from stores in response to backlash over copy-protection software on the discs. Sony also said it will offer exchanges for consumers who purchased the discs, which contain hidden files that leave them vulnerable to computer viruses when played on a PC.
    "Sony BMG deeply regrets any inconvenience to our customers and remains committed to providing an enjoyable and safe music experience," the company said. Sony says more than 20 titles have been released with the XCP copy-protection software, and of those CDs, over 4 million have been manufactured, and 2.1 million sold. Details about how long it will take to replace the XCP CDs and about its consumer exchange program will come later in the week, Sony said.

    Maxtor DiamondMax 10: Exploring NCQ & RAID

    Our friends over at Hot Hardware are using a 250GB DiamondMax 10 SATA-II drive as a guinea pig for Native Command Queuing and RAID testing. Other participants in the test include a 300GB Maxtor DiamondMax 9 and a 74GB Raptor:

    The performance improvement offered by NCQ and a faster SATA interface on the Maxtor DiamondMax 10 line of drives is more evolutionary than revolutionary when compared to the DiamondMax 9. And these new features are still not enough for the new Maxtor drives to take the overall performance spot from the Western Digital WD740GD Raptor drives.

    However, when pairing the new NCQ enabled Maxtor DiamondMax 10 drives with the Intel ICH7 integrated RAID controller in the right combinations and quantities, some very impressive performance numbers start to emerge. The maximum theoretical combined transfer rate of three Maxtor DiamondMax 10 drives is 450 MB/s. In a RAID 0 configuration with a 4K stripe size, we recorded a burst speed of 343 MB/s, which is about 75% of the theoretical limit.

    Tuesday, November 15, 2005

    New Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Series Driver 2.07.0004

    Creative Labs has finally released an updated driver for their X-Fi series of sound cards. This package contains an improved version of the driver found on the Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ installation CD. This driver includes the following application:

    • Creative Audio Console The application enables you to use the Sound Blaster X-Fi features and functions.

    Fixes:

    • Removes randomly occurring audio distortion that may occur after you install drivers and restart your computer.
    • Improves host CPU utilization performance when you play 3D/EAX games.
    • Improves the usability of the Bit-Matched Playback feature in Audio Creation Mode.
    • Resolves some MIDI/SoundFont® compatibility issues.
    • Restores EAX presets properly when you select default settings in Entertainment Mode.
    • Resolves the issue of a mode console sometimes not responding after you switch modes.
    • Restores proper functionality to the EQ sliders when you select EAX effects in Entertainment Mode.
    • Removes the error message that sometimes appears in THX Setup Console when you switch modes multiple times.
    • Resolves the issue of your computer not responding when you change the Reverb Aux effect in Audio Creation Mode.

    OCZ Technology Announces The Opening Of OCZ Europe

    OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high-reliability memory, is pleased to announce the launch of the new OCZ European headquarters. To accommodate the growing European enthusiast market and to provide dedicated service and support to European customers, OCZ Europe will open its doors November 14th, in The Netherlands. OCZ products will now be more readily available to the entire European market.

    “Our commitment to deliver the highest quality enthusiast grade memory and power management solutions to the global marketplace has a always been a priority,” stated Ryan Petersen, CEO, OCZ Technology Inc. “The opening of our European branch office allows us to provide a superior product offering and better serve the unique needs and requirements of both customers and end consumers in this key region.” "I am very excited to get our feet on the ground here, we have been very successful selling into Europe from our US office but having a presence in Europe will allow us to increase support and work closer with our customers to realize our maximum potential," said John Apps, VP of International Operations, who will act as General Manager for this location.

    OCZ Europe’s office will begin operation on November 14th and is located at Kleveringweg 23, 2616LZ, Delft, Netherlands.

    Nvidia GeForce 7800GTX 512MB Reviews

    Yesterday Nvidia unveiled the latest incarnation of their 7800GTX the 512MB version. With beefed up GPU and memory clocks you might be intererested how it performs in comparison to ATI's X1800 XT with 512MB. Now fortunately there are enough reviews for you to base your opininion on:

    Monday, November 14, 2005

    Nvidia Will Release New Official Forceware Today - 81.94

    Aligned with todays lift of the non-disclosure agreement on Nvidia's new flagship GPU, the GeForce 7800GTX 512MB, the company will release a new set of Forceware drivers for its products. It is yet unclear if the new set will be WHQL certified or when Nvidia thinks it is time to release it. The version will be 81.94. Here are the release highlights:

    • Adds support for GeForce 7800 GTX 512 and GeForce 6800 GS
    • Improved performance for Quake 4
    • Improved performance and compatibility for Call of Duty 2
    • Added support for VSync on Direct3D games when running NVIDIA SLI.
    • Performance enhancements for dual-core CPUs.
    • PureVideo high definition MPEG-2 de-interlacing support.
    • Usability enhancements when connecting to an HDTV.
    • Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0c and OpenGL® 2.0 support

    For a full list of fixed and known issues please view the Release Notes.

    ATI X1800 Available As AGP Version Too

    Although both Nvidia and ATI decided to give AGP owners the boot with their last generation products, some companies aren't comfortable with the lack of options and are swimming against the stream. One of those companies is a resurrected creature from the very beginning of the 3D era, Diamond Multimedia.

    The company announced its X1800 product, available for both PCI Express and AGP 8x slots. Specifications are scarce, and there were no clock speed information at press time. It's obvious that the custom-built PCB features RIALTo PCIe-to-AGP bridge chip, and only makes us wonder why no single vendor stepped up and offered 7800GT(X) on a custom PCB with nVIDIA's own BR02 bridge chip.

    The board features 256MB of DDR memory and spots a fully-featured R520 chip, so it sounds like AGP owners could be in for one heck of an upgrade. The company website states a November 2005 availability.

    ATI Has Been Testing R580 Since July – Sources

    Sources close to ATI Technologies have said that the company has been testing its forthcoming high-end graphics processing unit (GPU) since July, 2005. The chip, which is due to be out early in 2006 is claimed to be a rapid one by persons familiar with the matter.

    “It is really fast,” a person who knows approximate performance estimates of the code-named R580 graphics processor said. Another source noted that ATI Technologies has been “playing” with the code-named R580 part since early July, 2005, at least, trying to clock it at different speeds and measure its performance afterwards.

    Rumours that have been circulating around the Web indicated that the internally known as the R580 graphics chip supports up to 48 pixel processors, 8 or more vertex processors and work at high clock-speeds. The chip, however, is expected to have from 16 texture mapping units (TMU), less that could be expected. The product is to support Shader Model 3.0, ring-bus memory controller, GDDR4 memory type and other innovations.

    Real Patches Two Serious Player Flaws

    RealNetworks patched two significant vulnerabilities that affect most versions of its Real Player software. One flaw, marked as a "high risk," allows a skin file to be downloaded and applied to the player without the user's permission. The file could contain data that causes a heap overflow, according to eEye Digital Security.

    The other more serious flaw involves specially formatted .rm movie files. An attacker could use the file to trigger a direct stack overwrite and thus open up a backdoor to execute malicious code. "RealNetworks has received no reports of machines compromised as a result of the now-remedied vulnerabilities," the company said in an advisory, but pointed out that it "takes all security vulnerabilities very seriously." The patches are available through Real Player's built-in update mechanism.